Martin Short is considered one of Hollywood’s most prolific comedians, but unbeknownst to many of his audiences, his decades in the spotlight have been touched by enormous loss and tragedy.
The death of Short’s 42-year-old daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Harley Short, was confirmed Tuesday with the family saying in a statement, “It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short. The Short family is devastated by this loss, and asks for privacy at this time.”
Katherine, the eldest of Short’s three children with his late wife Nancy Dolman, was found dead by suicide Monday inside her California home. Short, 75, has not spoken out about his daughter’s passing, but he postponed his comedy tour dates.
Her death marks the most recent loss for Short, who has endured a number of tragedies over the years, including the deaths of his wife, his brother, his parents and multiple friends.
Short’s wife, Nancy, died aged 58 in August 2010 after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The former couple had been married for 36 years and had three children together. Two years after her death, Martin remembered Dolman as “the right person” for him in an interview with The Guardian.
“It’s been a tough two years for my children. This is the thing of life that we live in denial about, that it will ever happen to us or our loved ones, and when it does you gain a little and you suffer a little. There’s no big surprise,” he told the outlet at the time.
The Saturday Night Live alum often mentioned his late wife in the years after her death and said he was committed to keeping her memory alive. He told AARP in 2019, “Our marriage was a triumph. So it’s tough. She died in 2010, but I still communicate with her all the time. It’s 'Hey, Nan,' you know? How would she react to this decision or that, especially regarding our three kids.”
During his adolescence, the Canadian actor faced the deaths of several immediate family members.
When he was 12, Short’s older brother David died in a car accident. He said later in his life that he used humor as a coping mechanism to deal with such loss at a young age.
“I think the reason all that didn’t throw me sideways was because I had such a solid foundation,” Short told The Guardian. “Those kinds of situations are horrible but I think that you are either empowered by them or you become a victim of them.”
Short went on to lose both of his parents before he turned 20. His mother, Olive Hayter, died of cancer when he was 17. His father, Charles Patrick Short, died from a stroke just two years later.
In the past year alone, Short has also been affected by the sudden deaths of his close friends and colleagues.
When filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were killed in December, Short joined in issuing a joint statement honoring the Reiners’ legacy from the couple’s close-knit group of friends across the creative industry, which also included Billy Crystal, Larry David and Albert Brooks.
Short also remembered his fellow sketch comic Catherine O’Hara in an onstage tribute after her death.
“Catherine O’Hara, I met when she was 18 years of age, and all these years later, she has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with,” Short said during his comedy show with Steve Martin. “So God bless Catherine,” he toasted.
Martin told the Hollywood Reporter in August 2024: “At 20, I knew things about life and death and tragedy and loss that none of my friends knew about. I don’t know why this didn’t screw me up. The only thing I can think of is that these kind of life stresses either empower you or defeat you.
“But I think that by surviving all that and continuing on, I developed muscles to handle the disappointments in life,” he said. “And I do think, in a weird way, it did make me braver as a performer, braver onstage. I’d try something, and if some people didn’t like it, I didn’t care because I didn’t know them. I was never doing this for the admiration of strangers. I was doing this to make my siblings and my friends laugh.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
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